QScope

Final account and reports

A final account that shows its working

Every adjustment from the original contract sum to the final balance due, in the order RICS sets out, so the client can follow it without a covering letter explaining the spreadsheet.

  • Adjustments follow the RICS final account order
  • Only non-zero lines print, so the statement stays readable
  • Retention release shown explicitly, not folded into a total

30 days free, no card.

Final Account
Statement, 11 Essex Road
Original contract sum£219,250.33
Variations, approved+£1,000.00
Provisional sums adjusted(£2,400.00)
Adjusted contract sum£217,850.33
Less certified to date, gross(£84,115.00)
Add retention release+£4,205.75
Final balance due, excl VAT£137,941.08

QScope lays out the ladder: original sum, variations, omissions, provisional sums, remeasurement, dayworks, fluctuations and loss and expense, then what has been certified and what remains.

From contract sum to balance due, line by line

The argument at final account is almost never about the total.

It is about one adjustment the client did not expect and cannot trace. QScope lays out the ladder: original sum, variations, omissions, provisional sums, remeasurement, dayworks, fluctuations and loss and expense, then what has been certified and what remains.

Final Account

Every adjustment named, not folded into a total

The argument at final account is almost never about the total.

  • Provisional sums adjusted against what the work actually cost
  • Remeasurement, dayworks and fluctuations each on their own line
  • Loss and expense stated separately, because it is not subject to retention
Final Account
RICS adjustments
Provisional sums adjusted(£2,400.00)
Remeasurement+£1,180.00
Dayworks+£940.00
Loss and expense+£2,600.00
Omissions(£3,150.00)
Net adjustment(£830.00)

QScope lists each category on its own line, in the order RICS sets out, and prints only the ones that are not zero so the statement stays readable.

Variations

Where the adjustments to the contract sum come from

The £1,000 for variations on the account is not a lump.

  • Basis of valuation held against every variation
  • Additions and omissions both carried through
  • Certified percentage tracked against each variation
Variations
VO-01 Additional window to gable
Basis of valuationContract rates
Contract clauseJCT 5.6.1
Extension of time2 days
Loss and expenseNo
Subtotal£1,000.00

QScope carries the approved variations into the adjusted contract sum and keeps the basis of valuation behind each one, so a challenged adjustment can be traced to its clause and its instruction.

See it running before you sign up

Retention

The release that closes out the account

Certified to date is deducted gross at £84,115, because retention has not been paid yet.

  • Certified to date deducted gross, not net
  • Retention release shown as its own line
  • Half at practical completion, half at making good
Retention
Release into the account
Retention held on certificates£4,205.75
Released at practical completion(£2,102.87)
Released at making good(£2,102.88)
Added back to the account+£4,205.75

QScope carries the retention through as an explicit release, matching the retention notice, so the client can see the security returned rather than quietly netted off.

Loss and expense

Loss and expense stands on its own line

Loss and expense is not subject to retention and it is not a variation.

  • Ascertained total carried as its own line
  • Each head linked to the delay event that caused it
  • Not subject to retention, so kept off the retained figures
Loss and expense
Ascertained to the account
Prolongation£1,900.00
Disruption£700.00
Claimed, all heads£4,100.00
Ascertained to the account+£2,600.00

QScope carries the ascertained total to the account on its own line, each head linked to the delay event it arose from, so the client sees what was allowed and on what basis.

Final account

Closing out under FIDIC, not just a JCT final certificate

A FIDIC job does not close on a JCT final certificate.

  • Statement at completion, then the Final Statement, then the Final Payment Certificate
  • Engineer certifies within 28 days, Employer pays within 56, on the 1999 Red Book default
  • Counted in calendar days, with no pay-less notice, unlike the UK regime
Final account
FIDIC close-out, 14.11 to 14.13
Statement at completion, 14.11Submitted
Final Statement, 14.12Agreed
Final Payment Certificate, 14.13Issued
Retention, second halfEnd of DNP
CountingCalendar days

On the 1999 Red Book the Engineer certifies within 28 days and the Employer pays within 56 days of the Statement, counted in calendar days. No pay-less notice applies. Dates and taxes are published starting points to verify locally.

Who it is for

One final account, four names on it

You are applying

You build the account from evidence

You build the final account from every adjustment on the record, and argue it from evidence rather than memory.

Applying for payment
the same measurement

You are certifying

You settle it, deduction by deduction

You settle the account from the other chair, and every deduction has to trace back to an instruction, a valuation or a notice.

Certifying payment

You are doing both

You close a year of paper alone

You agree the final account yourself, a year of paperwork against a client who remembers it differently.

Doing both yourself

You are reporting

You sign off before the facility closes

You confirm the final position before the facility closes: retention released, variations settled, the account signed off.

Recommending a drawdown

The client, the architect and the tenderer are not on this list. They are the people you let in on a link: they see the one document you sent them, answer it, and that answer is written into the record. No account, no licence, no charge, on every plan.

FAQs

The questions this page raises most often, answered without a sales pitch at the end.

Yes. Omitted work carries through as a negative adjustment, and provisional sums, remeasurement, dayworks, fluctuations and loss and expense each have their own line so the client can see what moved and why.

Because retention has not been paid yet, so it is added back on the next line as a release. Deducting net would quietly lose the retention from the account. The statement shows both steps rather than hiding the arithmetic.

That is the point of it. Anticipated final cost against the approved budget is available from the first valuation, and the variance is shown as a figure rather than a colour, so it survives being printed in black and white.

Enter their purchase order or reference in the project settings and it prints on certificates and reports, so their accounts team can match it without emailing you.

Yes. On a FIDIC contract the account closes through the Statement at completion, the Final Statement and the Final Payment Certificate under Sub-Clauses 14.11 to 14.13, with the Engineer certifying within 28 days and the Employer paying within 56, counted in calendar days. The statutory dates and taxes shown are published starting points to verify locally.

From the blog

The part nobody teaches you, written down

Three pieces from the same corner of a contract as this page, answered at length and without a sales pitch at the end.

All 174 pieces

Keep reading

The three parts this page leans on

A final account that shows its working

Every adjustment from the original contract sum to the final balance due, in the order RICS sets out, so the client can follow it without a covering letter explaining the spreadsheet.

30 days free, no card.

Rather ask first? Write to help@qscope.co.uk and you will get a reply within one working day, Monday to Friday.